Sunday, January 17, 2016 - The biggest problem with riding waves of unrestrained optimism is that you can land in a pile of trouble without even knowing it. You might see glimpses of a more realistic perspective now, but you're not willing to sacrifice your piece of blue sky just yet. While it's true that denial may put a smile on your face for a while, it won't make you very happy in the long run. Facing the truth is your only viable option, even if you must temporarily temper your carefree ways for a worthwhile cause.

The resounding ab winner in the muscle-activation studies is, in fact, the standard crunch. “Crunches aren’t this horrible villainized exercise that they’ve become over the years,” Matthews says. “When done correctly, they’re great for eliciting muscle activity in that part of the body.” The key words are “done correctly,” which Matthews describes as a full range of motion, engaging through the abdomen to lift the shoulders up off the ground. “You can have lots of variation in tempo, but if you find yourself lowering rapidly without control, try doing one count up and three counts down.” What doesn’t matter: Where you put your hands. The ACE study looked at both the cross-chest position and hands-behind-head and found no difference in ab muscle activation. However, if you have a tendency to interlace your fingers and yank on your head, cross-chest may be better for you, says Matthews.

For this, both diet and exercise play important roles, but the reward is a set of abs that are the envy of everyone you know. Here are six ab exercises to get you that highly sought, but rarely achieved, holy grail; the six pack.

The bench press remains a superior movement, and it may be so for you, but only if you learn these lessons, as I did. First, it’s not an ego exercise, so don’t use it to see how much you can bench; use it to build your pecs. Second, adapt the exercise to your body rather than vice versa — if you feel it more in your chest muscles when you’re on a flat bench, then that’s the position you should use; if you feel it more at a specific angle, use that angle. Third, control the movement so that you feel the pump build in your pecs, right where you want it. - FLEX

Backstage after bodybuilding contests, some competitors from second to last have ready excuses for their performances. These range from illness and injury to incompetent judges to “a freak of nature” victor — any of which may or may not be true. Meanwhile, some accept all blame for their fate — whether or not they deserve it — and are already strategizing what they’ll do different next time. Invariably, the latter make the greatest improvements, while those who always have an excuse for losing almost always have cause to use it.You can either be reactive or proactive. When you’re reactive, you blame outside circumstances and other people for obstacles or failures. By inference, there was nothing you could’ve done differently. When you’re proactive, you take responsibility for everything in your life and, because you’ve assumed control, you can anticipate difficulties, then devise a plan and take actions for overcoming any circumstance.

A typical exercise selection for a triceps shock would be two behind-the- neck extension movements, a cable pushdown and a “belly builder,” such as lying cambered-bar extensions. A lot of bodybuilders say you should start with the heaviest and most basic exercise, but I’ve found that the order of exercises has nothing to do with triceps development. If you have a hierarchy of exercises, that means some are not as good as the others, so get rid of them. They should all be the best.

After the bench or deadlift, pick three to four special exercises for both lifts. For benching, the lifter should do two sets of dumbbell presses in one of four angles, with moderate weight. For example, you could perform dumbbell presses for 50 pounds for easy sets of 15 reps, then triceps extensions, followed by upper back and lats, and finally rear and side delts. For deadlifting, do reverse hypers, inverse curls, rows, and abs.

ANSWER : I’ve seen some insane home gyms. Arnold has enough machines to make you believe he really is the Terminator. Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia has a weight room and a full basketball court. And Mark Wahlberg has a gym that could rival a state-of-the-art strength and conditioning facility. But as much as you may want to build your own mecca of bodybuilding in your garage, you don’t need much to get in great shape at home. I like to build home gyms by thinking of how each piece of equipment will play a role in the method the user has chosen to reach his goals.

The same goes for back machines. I used to do reverse-grip pulldowns on a lat machine before I ever touched a piece of Hammer Strength equipment. When the Hammer Strength version came out, I was pleased. What I like most about it is the arc of the pulling movement. On a lat machine, the pulldown motion is in a straight line, but the function of the lats is to pull both down and back, so the Hammer Strength machine is more effective. The seated row is equally good and is something I used quite a bit. I especially liked to perform these in single-arm fashion. In fact, I became known as such a proponent of this exercise that I was later consulted during the development of a reverse-grip rowing machine.

Pomegranate may be a new ally in the pursuit of a balanced gut environment. Not only are fresh pomegranate seeds a good way to add fiber to your diet, but early in vitro studies on pomegranate extract have explored how naturally occurring plant compounds in pomegranates called polyphenols may also help to provide an environment for good gut bacteria to thrive. A small preliminary study of 20 healthy individuals who took pomegranate extract suggests, but does not prove, that these poly- phenols may work as prebiotics, which feed the microbes in our gut to promote the right balance of beneficial bacteria.

They were famous long before she became an Olympia champion. In fact, for the first five years of her career Juliana Malacarne stood on a pair of legs that made her, well, stand out, even as she was placing in the bottom half of all but one of the 11 shows she entered in for the IFBB Pro League. In 2012, a new division called women’s physique was introduced and that year’s inaugural New York Pro Physique proved to be the perfect platform for Malacarne to showcase those full, shapely legs, as well as the rest of her considerable talents. The Brazilian-born beauty now has a record seven wins, including two Olympia Women’s Physique Showdowns, and Malacarne and her famous legs have walked into the record books as the most decorated women’s physique competitor to date.

You're coming in cold from off the streets or you just got out of work, don't just get under the bar and start lifting. The warm-up should be thorough and comprehensive, but when the warm-up is done, slowly ramp up your working sets. This means taking smaller jumps and performing low reps at each weight to get to your main working sets.

We all know that antioxidants are important to include in any eating plan, and that the best way to add them to our diet is to get enough of the whole, natural foods found mainly in the produce section. But did you know that one type of these free-radical-neutralizing compounds is called polyphenols? These micronutrients help protect plants—and may help boost your health, too.

If that's not enough to convince you, maybe this will: When we asked 25 women their opinion on the sexiest body part on a man , shoulders dominated. One woman said: “A large upper body—toned back, shoulders, and arms. I like a man who has the power to lift me up…”. But if you don't really care what the ladies think, a strong set of shoulders will make your life easier. Everyday movements like playing sports and lifting suitcases will be more of a breeze, plus you'll reduce your risk for injury during back and chest exercises, and make your workouts less stressful—on your mind and muscles.

While it seems noble to stand for what you believe is right, the judges aren't going to agree with you. You have to have what it takes going in. You can have the best trainer, the best diet guru, the highest caliber drugs and supplements, the most crystals that can possibly fit on your suit, the best hair extensions, makeup, a killer tan, and a saunter like a cat on stage exuding enough sex appeal to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window, but you're never going to compensate for poor genetics. You have to have the foundation to build upon. If you don't then I'm sorry, competing is not for you.

I have been waiting for Joe D to put out a podcast for the longest time! And once again Joe has over delivered to his audience. The first show was jam-packed with so much info I can't imagine how good the rest of the shows will be. DeFranco is the most well rounded coach in the world so I expect lots of great training information for a wide range of athletes and washed up meatheads (Joe's term for former athletes) alike. He also has a knack for making things very simple and practical. Whether you're training for the NFL Combine, looking to improve your running form, or trying to get abs for the summer, this should be your #1 podcast. I could listen to this guy speak all day. Kudos coach D. Jon (DeFranco follower since 2006)

The Golden Circle teaches that your "why" should be at the center of all your actions. Your "why" dictates your decision making, your drive, and ultimately, what sets you apart. We all know that it's important to work out and eat well, and if you're reading this, you know where to go to get the basics on how to do it. But no matter how much information you have, it's not until you create a strong, solid foundation of why you're doing these things that you'll actually stick to them.

Huge overload can take place with board presses because they allow you to lift more than your one-rep max. The bench press has an ascending strength curve, meaning the closer the barbell is to lockout the more force production is possible; in other words, you are weakest at the bottom and strongest at the top.

Whether your goal is to be a 250 lb. freak or 185 lb. sculpture, all of us who lift want to develop a V-shaped back with enough bumps and lumps to match the Rocky Mountains. However, this is no easy task, as the musculature of the back is quite complex and often hard to feel while lifting. It’s quite common to hear fellow trainees complain that when they try and work their lats, they manifest a better pump in the forearms and biceps, which does little to stimulate back growth.

After a workout, your muscles are hungry for nutrients to repair muscle damage—they’re like super-absorbent sponges. That’s why you want to consume a post-exercise whey protein blend. Whey protein taken immediately post-exercise has been clinically proven to enhance muscle recuperation. In a recent double-blind, placebo-controlled study following weight training, participants were randomized into two groups: carbohydrates only, and whey protein-carbohydrates only. Participants consumed 1.5 g/kg.bw/ day supplement (~30g consumed with breakfast, lunch, in the afternoon, after the evening meal, and immediately after exercise) for a period of 14 days following eccentric contraction-based resistance exercise sessions consisting of four sets of 10 repetitions at 120% of maximum voluntary contraction on the leg press, leg extension, and leg flexion machine.

By now, most of you know that high intensity interval training (the ever popular “HIIT”) is great for fat loss. But there are some rules for really making it work. You’ll read all about effective forms of HIIT lasting as short as 4 minutes (the Tabata method) and topping out around 15 minutes. The reasons being the workouts are effective because of the intensity and not the duration.

Turnips are root vegetables grown in cold climates with edible roots and greens. Farmers pick them early, when they're sweet, or just before fall frost, when they're bigger. Both types are good sources of antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins such as C and K.

"I don't want to have 400-pound bench pressers who can't do anything else. The guy who can do heavy push presses doesn't have that problem. He's strong at everything. And that can't be done with the strict military press either. It's too hard to get it moving. You have such a weak point at the start that it limits the amount of weight you can use."